Pain and Friendship
by c-wolf
Summary: It's slow going on each chapter, but I'm still on it.
1. Default Chapter

Lance might've hated the X-geeks, but when the chips were down, he always convinced his team to come through.  
  
As he walked down the hallway at Bayville High, Lance heard some crying. Turning the corner, he saw Kitty. Her arms were crossed and she was just rocking back and forth in front of her locker. The bell hadn't rung yet, so they were the only ones there. "Kitty?"  
  
She looked up at him blankly. Lance held out his hand, without saying a word. She grabbed it hesitantly and fearfully, but trustingly. and they walked outside to his jeep. They drove to a spot off campus and talked. She cried intermittently.  
  
Later, the brotherhood stormed into their house. The X-men had ticked them off royally, and Lance hadn't been around to help them. Pietro paced back and forth really fast "Where is he. When I get my hands on him!"  
  
Lance came walking in, and was immediately slammed against the wall by Pietro. "Where'veyoubeenyou should'vebeentherewhyweren'tyou."  
  
Lance punched him in the stomach. "Let's get serious guys, got something we've got to do." Pietro just looked at him in shock, with his mouth gaping.  
  
"Listen up. I won't tell you who this happened to, or the specifics. But someone we know has been raped, and I'm going to get the bastard! Now you can either come with me or be a bunch of cowards." He'd said the magic words. First, even the brotherhood wouldn't stoop so low as to rape someone. Injure them maybe, possibly even kill if the motivation were high enough. but rape was something else entirely. Secondly, calling them cowards was an act of war.  
  
Jean went to the professor. "Something is wrong with Kitty. She's not talking or joking like her usual self. I'm almost tempted to read her mind."  
  
Xavier shook his head. "Not without her permission. I can tell she's upset too, but she'll have to talk to us in her own time."  
  
Jean walked out of the room, and went to the nuthouse as she occasionally called it. Where everyone watched tv, played games, etc. When she walked in, she noticed Kurt holding Kitty tightly as she cried. There was a news broadcast. Something about an earthquake in an abandoned warehouse, and one dead body. "Though details are sketchy, the body appears to have been shaken with extreme force before the earthquake that registered as a 10 on the richter scale. We repeat, the person known as......."  
  
( Many friends of mine have been hurt.. and I refuse to call rapists by their names. They aren't human and don't deserve to be called one.) 


	2. Going hunting

Pietro was worse than ticked. He was in full blown hate, toward the rapist. His hyperactivity even when angry, never included hatred. On the contrary, he only got upset because nobody wanted to join in his fun. This was different though. Things were going to happen to the bastard. No matter what Lance tried to do, Pietro would make sure of that.  
  
Lance and his team with the exception of Pietro, who had zoomed upstairs, were preparing for their mission. He didn't know what they were going to do yet, but he'd know eventually. Thumps and bangs were coming from upstairs. Lance thought back to the drive with Kitty back to the mansion. She'd been so quiet and withdrawn after talking to him. Almost as if she thought he found her distasteful. He told her before she got out that he would not turn her away no matter what time of night she called. As for his team, if they tried to pick on her or anything, he'd do some damage.  
  
"Kitty."  
  
She shook her head. "I have to go in, and if you come near the gate, they'll just attack first and ask later." Wrapping her arms around herself tightly, she leaned her head on his shoulder for a few seconds, then got out without another word. When she looked back for a second, she turned away quickly. The tough guy had a tear running down his face. "Give me some time, I'll call when I'm ready. I need. I need to be alone right now, or as alone as they'll let me." She gestured toward the mansion. Then she walked toward the gate.  
  
The hyperactive idiot as Lance called him zoomed downstairs. Blinking in surprise, everyone noticed the baseball bats with nails imbedded in them. held in Pietro's hands. He also had a nail gun strapped to his side. "Well, let's go beat the hell out of him." Then he looked around. "What?"  
  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  
  
Tabitha decided, after Lance's revelations, to go to the mansion. Despite his vagueness, she had the feeling that he might have been talking about Kitty. She also knew that Kitty probably didn't want it mentioned. After informing Toad of where she was going, she walked out the door with all her things. It was time to move back to the mansion, for now. After all, Kitty was one of the girls. They'd gone around fighting crime for awhile, back when they wanted to prove they could do what the men did. Maybe if Tabitha brought her normal stress causing, hormone disrupting, attitude to the mansion. Kitty might find something to genuinely laugh at occasionally. It was all Tabitha could think of to do right now, since secrecy was the operative term. Besides, there was always the chance she guessed wrong. She left the jeep where it sat, for the first time ever. As she caught a taxi, she wondered how long the rapist would survive. Not that she cared if he lived or not.  
  
A couple of days ago, Kitty had finally managed to convince the professor to give her Tabitha's old room. Now, that privacy was going to work to her advantage. All she had to do was show up at mealtimes and pretend everything was fine. Hopefully she could pull off her normal attitude then. It was irritating to be the one who kept everyone's spirits up. She was the one who needed it now. As for Kurt, despite his teleportation, he knocked first. He also was good at listening. but blocking his thoughts from Jean and Xavier? Some day she'd tell him. maybe. As for the professor, Kitty sighed. "I'm going to have to tell him about the device that was used on me." She lay down on her bed, and tried to sleep.  
  
Lance and his team got into the jeep, and left. Kitty had told him who the guy was. As for where to find him, Lance had a few friends in town who gave him that information.  
  
(I wrote Pietro as I saw him in the cartoon. Granted it threw off the seriousness of this story slightly.) 


	3. realizations, planning

Logan returned from taking the students to school. Except for Kitty that is. Xavier thought she needed to sleep in. As he walked into the kitchen, he heard the doorbell. Grumbling, Logan walked over to it and opened it.  
  
Tabitha grinned at the hairy Canadian, and sped past him. He rolled his eyes, and closed the door behind her. "Welcome back Trouble. Good thing for you I'm not ready to start a training session right now."  
  
"Aw, you know you love me. When does Kitty get back by the way?"  
  
"She's upstairs in your old room. We moved her there."  
  
"Thanks." Tabitha said, as she ran up the stairs  
  
Logan grumbled again. "I'm going to need more beer."  
  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -  
  
Kitty hadn't gotten much sleep. She kept experiencing it over and over again. Just as she started to cry, someone knocked on her door. Wiping her eyes, and trying to make herself presentable, she walked to it and opened it. Tabitha swept her into her arms before she could say anything. Kitty gave up trying to hold the tears in.  
  
As Logan walked up the stairs to go to his room, he smelled fear. Following it, he came to the girls wing and saw Tabitha holding Kitty. It was Kitty he was smelling it from. 'snikt' "Who hurt you?" he snarled. "I'll slice 'em up."  
  
- - - - - - - - - - - - -  
  
Blob was cracking his knuckles. Pietro had a maniacal grin on his face that would scare Wanda if she hadn't decided a couple of days ago to go to the beach with one of her few friends. Lance was just barely able to control his powers. Toad was silent for a change.  
  
Pietro looked at Lance and said "You might want to control those powers a little. I don't mind destruction and mayhem, but the X-men will home in on you." Then he looked back at the trans-am that had hit a trench in the road that had suddenly appeared thanks to Lance. It was on its side, with the driver standing beside it cussing up a storm and waving his hands.  
  
"Just help me come up with a plan will you? He's surrounded by a lot of people, and I want to get him alone!"  
  
Toad looked up, and spoke for the first time since they left. "Chill, we'll get it done. We might not have been good at defeating the X-men in the past, but we're definitely good at setting up an ambush. And this guy isn't a mutant from what you told us. Shouldn't be too much trouble at all."  
  
"I want to hurt him, badly."  
  
- - - - - - - - - - -  
  
Tabitha looked at Logan. "Let us girls talk about it, will ya? If we need anything we'll call for you."  
  
"Fine. But I get first dibs on hurting whoever it is." Logan stalked off.  
  
"I'm staying here for the long haul, Kitty. Whatever's going on, I'm here to listen. As well as blow things up." She grinned. 


	4. Gathering information

Logan stalked back downstairs. Maybe it was time for some one on one with the danger room. As he walked toward the elevator, the front door swung open. All of the students came through in a rush. He almost got trampled.  
  
"Quit running!"  
  
"Sorry!" said Kurt who had teleported just before colliding with the angry Canadian.  
  
Logan grumbled loudly and walked away.  
  
Kitty and Tabitha had gone back inside the room, and were just holding each other.  
  
- - - - - - - - -  
  
The brotherhood pulled into a garage across the street. Lance got out, holding a picture in hand.  
  
"Good thing my contacts found this. Now we know what he looks like."  
  
Pietro looked at him. "Let me stand around down there and watch, I can tail him too."  
  
"Fine. I'm liable to kill him anyway. It'd be too quick." Lance sat back down in the jeep, and crossed his arms.  
  
"I'll come back and get you when I find out where he's going. And don't worry, I won't do anything to him till after you have a chance." Pietro sped off.  
  
- - - - - - - -  
  
Kurt walked up the stairs. He decided to walk to Kitty's room to check on her. As he neared the door, he heard sobs and soft murmuring. He knocked.  
  
"Who is it?"  
  
"Tabby?!"  
  
"No, that's my name." Tabitha opened the door slightly. "Hey Fuzzy."  
  
"I heard crying."  
  
"Kitty and I are having some private girl time." Tabby slid out from behind the door, and leaned against the jamb while still blocking access. "We can talk later if you want. Maybe even bug Logan like we used to."  
  
Kurt scratched his head. "Yeah, maybe. I guess I'll leave you two alone. Just don't cause any trouble without me." Tabitha poked him in the ribs. "It'd be boring if we left you out of it. See ya later fuzzy." Then she went back into the room, closing the door behind her.  
  
Kurt just shook his head and walked off.  
  
- - - - - - -  
  
Pietro ran back to the jeep. "He's checking out some abandoned warehouse. From what I heard, they're planning a new distribution, or something like that. He's going there alone."  
  
"Let's go."  
  
They drove out of the garage, and followed Pietro's directions. They pulled up near the black Porsche parked at the front. After checking around to make sure nobody else was roaming, they snuck in.  
  
"There he is." Said Pietro, pointing to a man in a black suit talking on a cell phone. He was taking notes on a pad as well.  
  
Lance stalked forward, with the rest following suit. They managed to get pretty close, before the man hung up the cell phone and turned around.  
  
"Who are you?" Then he yelled, as Fred picked him up with one hand. Pietro quickly patted him down for weapons. Then Fred threw him into the back wall. They all heard a couple of cracking sounds. The man screamed.  
  
"What do you want with me?" he yelled, staggering to his feet.  
  
"You raped a good friend of mine, asshole!" Lance yelled as he ran toward him. Pietro beat him to it however, and started pounding away with the baseball bats he'd put nails into. The screams got louder.  
  
- - - - - - -  
  
Kurt was sitting on the couch watching tv. Kitty and Tabitha walked in. Kitty sat down next to him, with Tabitha on the other side of her.  
  
- - - - - -  
  
Lance actually tried to pull Pietro off. He actually wanted the idiot to confess to the police.  
  
Pietro stopped for a moment. Then he looked at Lance. "You know, I am kind of curious as to how he managed to do that to Kitty.."  
  
"How'd you know?" yelled Lance.  
  
"She's the only female friend you have besides Wanda, that's how. Anyway..." Pietro picked the man up again. "What I'd like to know is how he turned her abilities off. Her reflex during any situation makes her intangible unless she consciously controls it." He looked at the brotherhood who were staring in shock.  
  
"What? I read." Then he looked back at their prisoner. "Well, care to answer it? Or do you want round two?" He grinned nastily. 


End file.
